LifeTale
Z | W | T
You Are Now Entering
The Treasure Room
WARNING
Below are spoilers for the rest of the tale's secrets and puzzles, proceed manually only if you don't care about any of that!
Forest
To open the way to the brick mountains, tap on the red trees at the digital forest entrance -- click to return there now:
LifeTaleZ
-- not just laundry listing things but diving into why those things as opposed to other similar things.
Ex. 1. SSNM-style RP vs. other kinds, to this day
Ex. 2. Liking and hiding anime (et al)
(1) Topical dives: Kaleido, GnP, Hikaru no Go, Oofuri
(2) NND medleys: appreciating why others like things
(3) More emotionally grounded themes vs. cartoons which for me in the 90s-00s mostly mocked/satirized, though that dichotomy has vanished since
(4) These + games' songs => Mind's Eye technique
^ how to render as AA slides mechanics? //Link plays music, minds eye sakuga + learning are me doing the inverse as a skill?
To open the way to the water temple, tap on the ????? at the brick mountains' entrance -- click to return there now:
- Running up walls = a mechanic of the abundant passion manifested in reply to Z's glamour I want to share via Z knowing the costs/criteria of W's reality
- At crumbling path = all the above becomes that much more existential when it misleads
Explain why you're being sent back to the mountain base
You Are Now Entering
Behind the Curtain
WARNING
Below are all the slides linked to from the main content - proceed manually only if you don't care about any of that!
2011+: Dependability
seeing Liz head up Anime Society
2011+: Dependability
Roberto/Cline's unofficial dev group
2011+: Dependability
becoming/leaving treasurer
2012+: Vulnerability
first big VG classes, highest sense of progressing toward the dream (Chan-tin/Allego5 + Mayfield/RotD)
2012+: Vulnerability
but also Dai
i. foreshadow LifeTaleT w/tides
ii. the B Grade Talk
2012+: Vulnerability
finding my people - azu
vs. the alienation theme up to now, but they soon went off to that "light" in the sky (nexus foreshadow linked w/career choice expl.)
2013+: ?
Plutchik?
2013+: ?
OSUCS Dept. Head Talk
2014+: ?
The reCline engine
2014+: ?
Tulsa (using how SoTime was a furthering of SoBelief <=> LifeTaleZ-2 foreshadow)
2015+: ?
Starfall/Boom
2015+: ?
SD2 Miner
2016+: ?
VR DFS's
2016+: ?
SD4 Rogue
2016+: ?
Mafiafam
2017+: ?
Game Jam
2017+: ?
Tinker's
2017+: ?
Thesis
2018+: ?
P&T
2019+: ?
BL2VR
2020+: ?
BL3
Gradually finding others to run alongside (Roberto, Azu) and who no longer run but help me continue (Jimmy) - tossing me up above to glimpse the Nexus for later
vs.
The feeling of being an alien growing up, later appreciating it's a part of my family
Alien vs. OSU
Hovering on objects reveals information
Home
Clicking on objects reveals secrets
→
Try not to advance slides until you see an arrow!
Reward for Puzzle 1:
The Family Shield
<picture of my necklace w/sapphire on, maybe a shot of the 3 from website>
Advance right to depart from home ->
Benjamin
Andrew
Jacob
LifeTaleZ
the digital forest
(ages 10+, 15 slides)
↓
Treasure Mountain
Crystal Caves
Harry Potter &
The Sorcerer's Stone
Battletoads
Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles
Sonic 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Pokémon Yellow
Zelda: Oracles
Pokémon Pinball
↓
- Super Mario 64
- Mario Kart 64
- Dr. Mario 64
- Mario Party 1-3
- Zelda: Ocarina
- Kirby 64
- Yoshi's Story
- Pokémon Stadium
- Snowboard Kids 2
- Pokémon Sapphire
- Zelda: LttP
- Zelda: Minish Cap
- Superstar Saga
- Chain of Memories
- Kirby: Nightmare
- Battle Network 2
- Sonic Advance 2
↓
↓
Gradually, I appreciated that each game had been a sapling - planted by its creator who stood on the shoulders of those inspirations who did the same. Raising their idea out from inside those roots, as it reached up into the skies of creativity in the hopes of one day joining that growing vista of treetops.
By the time I found myself looking up at the view, this new world's roots had spread bottomless under the feet of my time. Not only did the foliage line the horizon, but I could see cities of all sizes housed within its hollows. Drawn to a creation, communities of tree-dwellers formed between the canopy of the sublime and the terra firma of reality. This was the entrance to a near-infinite and, today, Digital Forest.
It was in this digital nature that I found a tool, affording anyone the ability to explore these heights.
Gradually, I appreciated that each game had been a sapling - planted by its creator who stood on the shoulders of those inspirations who did the same. Raising their idea out from inside those roots, as it reached up into the skies of creativity in the hopes of one day joining that growing vista of treetops.
It was in this digital nature that I found a tool, affording anyone the ability to explore these heights.
↓
Not only did the foliage line the horizon, but I could see cities of all sizes housed within its hollows. Drawn to a creation, communities of tree-dwellers formed between the canopy of the sublime and the terra firma of reality. This was the mouth of a near-infinite and, today, Digital Forest.
By the time I found myself looking up at the view, this new world's roots had spread bottomless under the feet of my time.
Participated in Camp Hyrule!
This was my intro to all that
Entering the online world!
This was my intro to all that
2003: My 1st Community
Also "Animal Crossing Community" a year later in 2004!
MAKE THE FOLD TRANSITION ON A NEW KIND OF MAP COLOR HERE = BEING IN TREES!
This was my intro to all that
SuperBanjo
Chao Shop
TSR
TMFZ
OCs
Fanfics
RP
GalaxyForce
Creating
into SoB
Spriting
into SSNM
Writing
into G&W
This was my intro to all that
Spriting
into SSNM
Writing
into G&W
SuperBanjo
Chao Shop
TSR
TMFZ
OCs
Fanfics
RP
Creating
into SoB
This was my intro to all that
GalaxyForce
Creating
into SoB
This was my intro to all that
The Roblox of 2007
THE KEY TO MAKING THE BELOW SLIDES IS TO BREAK DOWN THE SEQUENCE/LINKS BETWEEN THE ELEMENTS IN EACH SLIDE!
Make the most fun/best version of each!
This was my intro to all that
Roblox of 2007 compared to now - as you can imagine, it's surreal to see what Roblox has become today, back then it was just "online Lego with no restrictions!" (For above, +photobucket pics back then!)
Unsponsored Contests
Contest concept that won and was then built and featured on the old site admin account!
1
2
3
This was my intro to all that
Evidently some people years later were surprised the contest used SketchUp!
Abrupt Bonus Level Warp
Abrupt Bonus Level Warp
This was my intro to Vocaloid
and if Vocaloid was the internet rabbit hole,
this was stepping onto an internet landmine
This was my intro to all that
a n i m e
I'd seen Toonami before, but medleys became my checklist for what the internet considered classics not only for Vocaloid,
but also
wanna make this a big series of things popping around
Again via music (and largely medleys), I encountered Touhou
shout-outs to the long-since-terminated channels higurashi678 and The Poltergeist Manor trio
Touhou is so influential that half of the "notable" names on the Wikipedia for "doujin music" in Japan, arguably thanks to the series' sole creator "ZUN" freely allowing derivative works with the IP, plus the games' strong per-level-boss melodies
japanese interests recap
medleys
anime
j-rock/pop
touhou
???
revisit to add ex's as hover
On the Other Side
On the Other Side
2007 to 2010: My Top 3 Frozen in Time
TWEWY
Okami Wii
LBP
A E L L
L B P
Z W E I
Z
2013
SoB: Why I Design to
REIFY
Z
FINAL PUZZLE
Lost Woods style?
FOR THE EMERALD
Gimmick: hover-on shapes lto reveal arrows pointing toward something e.g. in the Lost Woods puzzle?
Attributions
- Inspiration for the Digital Forest metaphor taken from an 00's essay that I read as a teen that I still recall when I think about math. It's reminiscent of my major choice of CompSci's story on "coding intuition"...
- Inspiration for turning the idea of how I bounced between online communities to flying between here and there with the hookshot came from one of teen-me's favorite videos:
LifeTaleW
the brick mountains
(ages 14+, ## slides)
↓
Family Protection
but also Pressure
Time to $
Independence
Deadlines, Loans
Design on a Dime
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
E
Deadlines, Loans
Design on a Dime
Todo: find a better "final mtn boss" BG?
Holding up Mountain & Nexus
w/ Release Team
Able to see up through the map's underside to that nexus overhead and everyone continuing their climbs/supports
Shoes shattering as it causes a crater
Helped to my feet by new seniors
Fly-run down mountain with 45th wings
Several slides of falling
Fold around me just before the impact
Reflecting on roots and the people who gave me the mountain shoes, but also how I can't help others over the walls directly or blow the walls away like a bomb item
Breaking the Shoes
Breaking the
Shoes
Thoughts on
The Crumbling Path
Re-confronting the choice to move closer into the nexus or not, what I prioritize of that at cost of low-level-ness vs. expediting others -- giving not only game design hat but my game code hat to Twila
v
The Release Team -- running down the mountain I worked so hard to run up so that, while I may not be able to help others hike up like Dr. Pausch, I can at least help these 2 at the base of the mountain hold the mountain itself upon our shoulders -- and connect it back to the forest with our releases
The clouds I was running in and out of, mountains high enough to mostly be above the clouds, now recede to reveal no path -- that passion becoming equally potent in its existentialism now that I have understood the path-goal I thought was there doesn't exist and my passion misled me to think that it did, as I sat at the final(?) career fork
The Crumbling Path
< todo: apply the same format as the college major choice>
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<Half of C25 jumps apart from the one I'm in as ours leaps up again>
<brick rows leaped up now unveil the two VR GB project banner images>
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7. Wings kicking in
6. Realizing I have height, but not momentum = plummets for a few frames
4-5. Up at the clouds, faintly see (honors thesis) + camera snap (Guildhall essay) the nexus
The grad college statement of purpose
=
Defining the top of the mountain
+
Choosing against "design on a dime" to join the software track, to be "the wheels on the car"
Defining
the Nexus
The involvement of LifeTaleZ/Twila to continue fueling the movement forward -- gradually giving over the choice to make games over to that free-time side of my life
4-5. Up at the clouds, faintly see (honors thesis) + camera snap (Guildhall essay) the nexus
3. Once fully up, reveal a giant chasm
2. As wall comes down it's just white bg
1. Up a very tall brick wall alone
We reach the chasm over to the cloud-piercing Mt. Guildhall, <with an intimidating symbol of the pricey loans (Adult's Wallet again) to be jumped over, and Roberto parts ways with me> leaping across a separate chasm to the workforce
<todo: chasm bg/sequence>
The family shield became my wings
semper anticus
always forward
The family shield became my wings
semper anticus
The family shield became my wings
In that moment, not only did the pressure on my back vanish
But upon answering it... It came out how, growing up, I struggled with his anti-nerd expectations for me. Then my dad reassured me that no: he was truly proud of me for committing to pursuing my dreams. (He couldn't.)
The pressure of the shield on my back grew heavier as I anticipated the other side of the phone call.
But upon answering it... It came out how, growing up, I struggled with his anti-nerd expectations for me. Then my dad reassured me that no: he was truly proud of me for committing to pursuing my dreams. (He couldn't.)
The pressure of the shield on my back grew heavier as I anticipated the other side of the phone call.
The pressure of the shield on my back grew heavier as I anticipated the other side of the phone call.
*plop back on the mountain*
*ring ring, ring ring*
*ring ring*
(
Incoming Call...
Dad
(
(
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)
)
*ring ring*
(
Incoming Call...
Dad
(
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)
*ring ring*
(
Incoming Call...
Dad
(
(
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)
)
(
Incoming Call...
Dad
(
(
)
)
)
Roberto helped me up the brick wall as we pursued gamedev, a boost so strong it let me glimpse the source of all those saplings that had enchanted me growing up...
Producers
Coders
Artists
Designers
Writers
Audio
QA
Animators
UX
an interdisciplinary Nexus, all reifying together
Roberto helped me up the brick wall as we pursued gamedev, a boost so strong it let me glimpse the source of all those saplings that had enchanted me growing up...
an interdisciplinary Nexus, all reifying together
Roberto helped me up the brick wall as we pursued gamedev, a boost so strong it let me glimpse the source of all those saplings that had enchanted me growing up...
Using the Shoes
Using the
Shoes
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<gallery w/Roberto - OE, LD25 etal - like Roblox>
Reaching Roberto after more hurdles, who helps me up over the top of a taller wall (game club/jam, O;E) and we take off together up the rest of OSU
Roberto was off in distance but waits at top of a much higher wall ahead of me after he notices me behind him (since he literally was making the club with someone else who just petered out over time and I sorta stepped up thanks to Dr. Cline pointing me after Roberto)
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Thank you to Dr. Cline who emailed me back in summer 2011 the idea at least being qualified for a school like The Guildhall at SMU if my dream was gamedev
Pointing me toward the mountaintop ahead, its peak concealed behind a cloak of clouds
<explain nexus/hookshot/Ni/pbsfinale quality that only the latter has to it>
V
I start toward the career mountain that was programming code, moving to Stillwater with shoes laced & shield on my back - propelled onward NOT BY the boots BUT BY my commitment TO them, to chasing my childhood dream of helping reify games
Because I love the "dream" in this story: building on proofs in leaps of intuition
=
(ultimately)
a
SOLO
effort
Because I'm fascinated by coding our intuitions to guide a CPU's steps
=
(ultimately)
a
TEAM
effort
Why?
Mountain B: Programming
Mountain A: Pure Math
What talent × interest will I pursue after graduating high-school?
Well, I thought, I've always been most talented with math classes...
LifeTaleW Deadline #1
-- Well, in this one LifeTale area, I can't afford to be slow
And I always create slowly, lacking the "design on a dime" attitude I feel a heavily creative career needs... but, I want to glean what I can running alongside -- expediting! -- the amazing people who can design on a dime... thus...
- in Z, I can create my own world and road and path, but not here
-- Well, in this one LifeTale area, I can't afford to be slow
So... I can't design creatively on a deadline for a career,
but I want to glean what I can running alongside -- expediting! --
the amazing people who can... thus...
Because
of deadlines
Because
of finances
-- Well, in this one LifeTale area, I can't afford to be slow
So... I can't design creatively on a deadline for a career,
but I want to glean what I can running alongside -- expediting! --
the amazing people who can... thus...
Because
of deadlines
-- Well, in this one LifeTale area, I can't afford to be slow
So... I can't design creatively on a deadline for a career,
but I want to glean what I can running alongside -- expediting! --
the amazing people who can... thus...
-- Well, in this one LifeTale area, I can't afford to be slow
So... I can't design creatively on a deadline for a career,
but I want to glean what I can running alongside -- expediting! --
the amazing people who can... thus...
-- But which professional path do I commit my life to?
Entering a career path!
*click*
Thank you
Prof. Randy Pausch
Thank you
Rev. Lance Sawyer
Chasing the Use of
Childhood
Dreams
Chasing the Use of
God-given
Abilities
Thank you
Prof. Randy Pausch
Thank you
Rev. Lance Sawyer
I started toward the brick mountains from the forest thanks to 2 wise voices: a professor and a pastor who left my life just as I'd begun to appreciate their words.
Thank you
Prof. Randy Pausch
Thank you
Rev. Lance Sawyer
I started noticing the brick mountains from the forest thanks to 2 wise voices: a professor and a pastor who left my life just as I'd begun to appreciate their words.
Text
Thank you
Prof. Randy Pausch
Thank you
Rev. Lance Sawyer
I started noticing the brick mountains from the forest thanks to 2 wise voices: a professor and a pastor who left my life just as I'd begun to appreciate their words.
Chasing the Use of
Childhood
Dreams
Chasing the Use of
God-given
Abilities
Receiving the Shoes
Receiving the
Shoes
LifeTaleT
v -- the water temple -- v
(ages 16+)
Item Choices
something to allow diving?
- start with raft/boat, but storm/whirlpool takes it away?
- or maybe the item you have besides the raft/boat is the iron boots? it's just that then you then acquire scales or use this as transition to the Zora mask to allow breathing underwater until iron boots turn to be flippers?
World/Boss/Mechanics:
- T = Strong foundation: inescapable when it convicts
- behind them all: appreciating others but always chasing a foggy view of oneself
- to share what is glamour to me -- by covering how my response to it manifests in T
Gimmick: overlay big->small shapes click to fade off to imply uncovering (also hover events do that) or going deeper inwards to a clone slide -> auto animate entering a new area or maybe just first one through such a hole
--> sinking and rising!!! OR, ALTERNATIVELY, use the not-auto-anim zoom in/out transitions + the slide bg transitions between black, dark, and light blue
Key: can't click when something's invisible
(demo below: other chains besides 1->2->3->4 won't get GOAL!)
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"Unclick Backtrack Unlock"
Has the downside of being slow, so while good for the ocean, what else is there for the forest (speed) and the mountain (strength)?
- 24/7 Invis Clickable
- Password Clickable
GOAL
Water Temple
Title Text
Shattering transition and fall to bottom of the ocean before rise, use the 2010 paper and social hangup explanation
require 3 stones by clicking on a series of letter buttons revealed by the bottom of each column?
T - H - E - O
W - O - R - K
Z - W - E - I
success will reveal a grouped hyperlink to the adult slides?
(maybe hide an adult-dungeons solution in this too?)
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
LifeTaleT
v -- the ocean seafloor -- v
(ages 17+)
New Wave Bossa Nova
Learning to walk up along the seafloor back onshore plus the Zora guitar's link to Lulu's depression
Walking up from the seafloor, learning to move in and with the water mindfully => Zora mask! the depressive water becoming overflow/outpour water!
Title Text
? = People I don't ghost (at the time of that cycle) + Reconnecting with Lance's gifts sermon (making a thing or mindfulness)
Title Text
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin urna odio, aliquam vulputate faucibus id, elementum lobortis felis. Mauris urna dolor, placerat ac sagittis quis.
LifeTaleW
v -- the borderland volcano -- v
(ages 18+)
Volcano Lullaby
Relief and rest amid professional stress and anxiety with you as 3rd-party to a father-son Last Lecture
Title Text
- Fiery passion = lava? Fire rod?
- Creation of own path around brick walls = block rod?
- Roosting = Dragon Roost?
- Wall moving (gauntlet/glove/bracer) or breaking (bomb/hammer) items?
Key Incorporation: Twila, whose ideas & glamour grounds the otherwise existential fall
The tale's conclusion: my career is meant to "hold up the mountain" after running back down it once the path vanished... rather than to be a wall-opener the way Dr. Pausch was -- to enable others to continue up the mountain and face the Brick Walls on it, rather than removing or partially lowering down those obstacles. It is foundation for myself (Twila, really) and for others.
LifeTaleZ
v -- the lost woods -- v
(ages 20+)
Wake-up Call
Straining to get a message out while small and weak amid endless strong treetops of indiedev beyond work
SoB projects I did for courses - Concealed, Acrobatics, Karashan, honors thesis trio - and electives I loved like the music classes, the Sicart encounters
Bottom of the Mountains
Z & W & T
LifeTale
That the key I have been learning is the tunnel vision of a single life tale must be broken using another life tale's point of view, whether mine (like Dtwila to Kalei) or another's (going to friends).
behind them all: appreciating others but always chasing a foggy view of oneself
(Fe vs. Fi)